D.C. Fun

On our last day in D.C., I woke up at 830 after about 5 hours of sleep, had breakfast with Jeremy, and was ready for a nap at 930. But we didn't want to waste our final hours in the nation's capital with something as lame as resting, so we went to the MLK Jr. memorial instead.

It is pretty majestic, and surrounded by walls with his quotes engraved into the rock. Did that man ever say anything that wasn't supremely eloquent?

But what to do next? It was getting warm, and both of us have seen the other monuments at various times in our lives, and I was not in any condition to go flip flopping around in the sun. So Jeremy had his one brilliant idea of the trip: museums!

We made it through the American History and Natural History Smithsonians. No entrance fees. As in, we walked through metal detectors and saw hundreds of incredible exhibits for zero dollars. America is a great and wonderful place.

I took my family in California on a virtual tour of the Natural History museum with about 400 texted photos of the exhibits, much to Jeremy's delight. But the exhibits sealed the deal for me; museums with taxidermied animals are 100x better than zoos. You get up close and personal with the bison, but you don't have the guilt 2 minutes later when you walk on to the next enclosure and the bison is still stuck there, pacing around its "habitat enclosure." These animals are dead, and you can stare at them all you like without worrying that they hate their lives behind bars.

Plus, these animals are posed in action positions that you'd never see at a zoo.

I could go on and on but then you'd get mad and say stop it already, if I wanted to see the Natural History museum, I would go there myself because your crappy cell phone pictures with the glare are NOT cutting it.

But I will share a couple of photos from the butterfly exhibit. The teen at the admission gate shrugged and nodded when I asked him if it was worth the 6.00 entry fee. Boy was it ever! Who doesn't love it when a butterfly lands on their head?

This huge one was on my butt for 5 minutes. I felt very special. They don't call them BUTTerflies for nothing YUK YUK. I make a great travel partner. The jokes alone are worth the price of admission. Actually, that giant one is actually a moth but I don't have any moth butt jokes.

Even Jeremy got some love. Until he swatted the butterfly away and it fluttered to the ground and a little girl stepped on it.

JUST kidding. No butterflies were harmed in the creation of this post. But one of the keepers showed us a butterfly that had no mouth and said it only lives for hours or a day because it can only survive on what is in its stomach when it comes out of the cocoon. Life is so cruel.